I had this problem when I enabled ASS subtitles. I figured it was just another subtitle format, so it shouldn't screw up anything, but I guess it changes the way subtitles are rendered. I just disabled that and it worked. On that note, could someone explain what this actually does? The command line it uses seems weird, and I wonder if it's for a specific port/fork of mplayer.

i am also not able to make the .srt/.sub subtitles show, no matter what settings i try. in the process list, mencoder has the right parameters, but on the PS, they don't show up. i tried all possible subtitle combinations, with or without ASS, still no result